Regards, Ivan
Posted on 03/30/2006 9:39:52 PM PST by MadIvan
FRANCE'S Constitutional Council last night approved a controversial youth jobs law, leaving the president, Jacques Chirac, with the risk of signing it and causing massive civil disruption or withdrawing it and losing his prime minister.
The First Employment Contract (CPE), which allows employers to sack workers under 26 without explanation at any time during a two-year trial period, has triggered a general strike and record demonstrations across the country.
After the council ruled the law valid yesterday, Mr Chirac now has nine days to sign it. The council's decisions are binding, with no appeal allowed.
The council's nine appointed members, including former statesmen and women as well as the ex-president Valerie Giscard d'Estaing, had examined the CPE following a demand from the opposition Socialists that the new law be thrown out as unconstitutional because it discriminates against young people.
The Socialists had also argued that the two-year trial period was unjust and violated international labour laws.
A ruling of unconstitutionality would have been the easiest way out of the current crisis for the law's champion, Dominique de Villepin, the prime minister, who would have emerged bloodied but with his political integrity intact. It would also have allowed protesters to declare victory.
Trade unions and students had earlier called for another one-day strike next Tuesday to maintain pressure on Mr de Villepin to scrap the law.
Small-scale protests continued yesterday with groups of up to 100 students blocking main roads.
Police arrested 70 protesters on the Paris ring road. In Marseilles, they used tear gas to disperse 400 students and school pupils who blocked the Saint-Charles railway station for two hours.
In Paris, 2,000 students blocked the tracks at the Gare de Lyon, holding up 10,000 passengers for almost three hours.
Universities have been disrupted for weeks by student protests over the CPE. Yesterday, 17 were still closed by protesters and 41 were disrupted, out of a total of 84.
More than 550 secondary schools were also either closed or disrupted. The education minister, Gilles de Robien, yesterday appealed to university heads to ensure their students were able to attend classes, blaming "a small minority" for "preventing the great majority from pursuing their studies".
Mr de Villepin, the architect of the law, argues the CPE is an essential reform to boost youth employment in a country where those between the ages of 18 and 25 suffer sky-high unemployment rates of 23 per cent - more than twice the national average - a figure which soars to 50 per cent in some deprived suburbs.
Protesters disagree, saying it will do little to create new jobs, instead eroding job security and creating a generation of "throw-away workers".
Observers say Mr de Villepin's desire to be the strong man who succeeded in reforming France where his predecessors failed has made him impervious to the political risk he is taking.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
France's future just might rest on his decision.
I'd invite these pinkos to Texas, where anybody can be fired at any time for any reason, or no reason.
It's called "Right to Work" and we have a pretty healthy economy here.
The smart money is always with the mob in French politics.
I hope he signs it...hoo boy...I can't think of a more deserving scumbag than Chirac to have to face the fire either way he looks.
That my friends is what happens when you deal with the devil...you face the fire...(eventually).
So let them riot. Sign the damn law. The markets will rally and it will be a small but important step in the Socialist addiction withdrawl treatment for France.
(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")
French Students Take to Streets Over New Employment Law
A new law aimed at reducing youth unemployment (currently 23 percent) by making it easier to hire and fire young workers has sparked an outcry of opposition from the intended beneficiaries. As many as 1.5 million people participated in street demonstrations to protest the “First Job Contract” law passed by Parliament.
Jacques Esse, one of the students leading the protest, denounced the law. “They are trying to take away our leisure and force us into boring jobs,” said Esse. “We need money, not excessive demands on our time.”
Esse contends that forcing young people into the workforce will have anti-democratic impacts. “Who will march in the streets to protest bad laws if everyone has jobs?” asked Esse.
Esse demanded that the government save his generation from a life of meaningless toil. “Our time and our minds should be free to create the new ideas needed for a new millennium,” said Esse. Esse proposed that corporations and the rich be taxed to provide stipends for young intellectuals like himself.
Asked what new ideas for a new millennium he has, Esse responded that his proposed stipends for young intellectuals was just the first of many he was sure would be forthcoming if he isn’t bogged down by a dead-end job and has the time to work on them.
read more at...
http://www.azconservative.org/Column_Archives.htm
I think the French kids need to learn the meaning of competition. Losing a job is a character building experience and it may not be fair but just as it teaches you that you can be replaced it also teaches you that you can replace your employer with another one. I've always come out ahead after leaving a position and I think that enterprising young French students will be pleasantly surprised with an open job market as they rise quickly in money and status. There will always be those who fill entitled and it is exactly because they feel entitled to being given something that it becomes almost impossible for them to attain what they desire themselves.
I hope he does sign it Ivan
Then we see him surrender to French mob they love surrendering to strong forces LOL!
so when unemployment hits 50% for the french in their 20's, they might start thinking otherwise.
We should send all the illegal aliens here in the US to France to do the boring work the "intellectuals" won't do.
Effete fop he is, and may be, but he is a politician first. He's PM of France, and he wants to *remain* PM, so he will support...
the infowarrior
Where does liberalism/socialism come from? Answer : the cradle, everyone's first life experience; some grow UP and become republicans with a strong work ethic, some never do and become big INFANTS, always wanting something for nothing, generally referred to as democrats, liberals, socialists...Santa Claus is their ideal... WWII was SIXTY years ago, the french haven't known REAL WAR for 3 generations now. And yet we argue over pulling our troops out of Iraq this year, how long have they been in kosovo, or germany? So, it's no wonder riots are occurring in france, either from muslim youth or french youth, they haven't known the cleansing power/sobering up of WAR for 3 whole generations now; it's no wonder france is in such sorry shape...and christian morality is all but dead there, no surprise at all as to what's going to happen to them...
Jacques Esse, one of the students leading the protest, denounced the law. “They are trying to take away our leisure and force us into boring jobs,” said Esse. “We need money, not excessive demands on our time.”
France is so screwed. It's popcorn time.
I propose we make book on the outcome. I'll offer odds that Chirac caves.
De Villepin has three problems. First, after the Muslims rioted, he promised that there would be more jobs available. This is just not going to be possible under the present circumstances, and the government cannot fund "make work" schemes sufficient to the task. In order to keep this promise, and possibly ensure the banlieues don't explode again, he has to loosen labour laws so that jobs can be created.
Second, without people working, he has a hole in his budget, which is only going to get worse. He has to get the economy and employment moving, otherwise French finances are going to look as laughable as their vows of fidelity.
Third, and this follows from the first and second points, now that he is committed to this course, the French electorate rarely rewards retreating in the face of tough decisions, even if the PM did what they wanted. His only hope is to grit it out and hope that the economy picks up once the law is signed.
Regards, Ivan
Caving in to the rioters is a recipe for disaster. But then most of old Europe is a socialist nest of malcontents as it is.
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